Bryan Simonson

Just kidding. In fact, the experience of waiting in line was so different this year that I didn’t even have any griping to do in my blog, which is, I assume, the place for all griping.

This time, as with Halo 2, I reserved my copy of Halo 3 fully prepaid. And, like last time, I planned on a freakishly long wait until I could actually touch the game on the day of its release. But unlike last time, my experience waiting for Halo 3 went better than expected.

Here’s some quick highlights:

Ok, so there are some caveats. Arriving earlier certainly reduced the wait. I also got my copy from another location in an indoor mall instead of an outdoor mall (Bellevue Square instead of Redmond Town Center) so I didn’t turn into a Popsicle.

BUT, there were some huge differences this year compared to last year in the service. Last year at the same GameStop they divided the people into two lines: people who had fully prepaid, and people who hadn’t. Seems logical right? Give the game to people who have already paid for it. But actually the logic was more like “take the money from people who have not yet given us money”.

The Halo 2 waiting experience was enough for us to boycott the store until we happened to visit the mall, and couldn’t avoid at least looking at what they had to offer. The clerk, full of naive enthusiasm, had the nerve to ask us if we wanted to pre-order Halo 3.

“Ha! Not this time you low-down sunnava… We learned our lesson last time.” But the clerk let us know that the manager actually got fired over the Halo 2 fiasco, and content with a scapegoat, we placed our orders.

And we were not disappointed. This year they took everybody who arrived early and cycled them through before midnight, taking full payments, and giving out finalized receipts. So basically, when midnight rolled around, you just brought in your receipt, they gave you the game, and you were gone. No punching into the computer, just walk-in and pick it up.

Almost as importantly, there was no time wasted on upselling. If I recall my conversation of last correctly, it went something like this:

EBX: Would you like to buy Prince of Persia?
Me: No, thank you.
EBX: Would you like to buy Mortal Kombat?
Me: Nope, thanks again.
EBX: Would you like to buy Knights of the Old Republic II?
Me: No.
EBX: Would you like to buy a used copy of Barbie Horse Adventures?
Me: SWEET BUTTERY JESUS! I heard Halo was coming out so I thought I’d pay in advance for Halo so that I could come here tonight and pick up Halo so that I could go home and play Halo and then go to sleep and dream about Halo until I could play some more Halo.
EBX:Ok. Jeez. I thought you wanted Barbie Horse Adventures.